Instituting
in all Nations to
regenerate values andpromote
sustainability"A
Place of World Faiths"

During recent years, numerous conferences are
being organised by UN and other organisations on deploying religion
as a positive force for nurturing ethics to reduce social conflicts,
and promote sustainability. Most such conferences end up by adopting
resolutions that all religions essentially stand for similar values,
and that communities should live in harmony with each other. They do
not address issues of exploitation, the basic cause of conflicts,
and how positive forces can be generated to deal with it.

Religion is the discipline dealing with personal and societal
ethics. Religion has, however, been often responsible for committing
political aggression on other cultures, creating social and ethnic
conflicts, and dividing society. Because of the abuse of religion
for political purposes, the West evolved the concept of secularism
as separation of the church from the state. The increase in social
and ethnic conflicts witnessed during the twentieth century has
however led to an attitude amongst the educated of disrespect, often
hatred, toward religion.

Physics is the discipline of physical sciences. It has served the
society well, but has also been responsible for creating devices for
mass destruction. The fact that it has produced such devices does
not mean that all study of physics should be abandoned. Similarly,
the fact that religion has been responsible for social and ethnic
conflicts does not mean that everything that is religious should be
discarded. What needs to be done is to study and eliminate the
factors that cause such conflicts, and deploy religion as a positive
force for curbing destruction by disciplines such as physics and
genetic engineering.

1The religious
ethos of the EastThe religious ethos of
the East, though similar in essentials, is somewhat different from
that of the West. The Hindi word "dharma", often
translated religion, is a much wider concept encompassing universal
values of humanism and duties of various functionaries in society.
Most Hindu scriptures are not dictations but dialogues between the
master and the disciple, trying to search the truth behind
consciousness and the cosmos.

It is often said that Hindu dharma is not a religion but a way of
life. Hinduism and most religions of the East are henotheistic, that
is, they believe in various manifestations of a single
super-consciousness. Western tradition is monotheistic, that is, it
believes in one god and inscripted prophets. Because of their
henotheistic character, the approach of the religions of the East to
secularism is of respect for all faithswhereas
that evolved in the West is of meretoleranceof
other faiths.

Hindu
scriptures lay great emphasis on fair and just governance. They
define the political power structure and also the dharma or duty of
various functionaries such as the state, religious leaders, state
bureaucracy, local communities, parents and the youth. Hinduism does
not have a single sacred book but a body of scriptures evolved over
4000 years of India’s civilisation, often referred to as dharmashastas
meaning religious treatises. The scriptures dealing with affairs of
the State stipulate that every local entity, that is a village or a
town, shall be self-governing controlling local resources and
decision-making, coordinated by janpads, that is, district or city
governments. The monarch could be hereditary or elected. He could
demand no more than 10 to 15 per cent of the local revenues for
higher level functions and cannot interfere in local
decision-making. It a monarch demanded more, the citizens had
the duty or dharma to remove him, if necessary by force! The
village and town governments thus drew authority from the
scriptures, not from the monarch. Such governance is symbolised
as Ram Rajya, the just rule of Ram, the monarch of the oldest Hindu
epic, Ramanaya. Through history, Ram reached the hearts of and is
revered by the people in many countries through his ideals, not
through physical conquest or compulsion.

The villages of India thus functioned as self-sustaining tiny
republics. The rules of village governance are engraved on many
ancient stone temples and are also found in Buddhist scriptures.
They provide that the village parliament consisting of all adult men
and women would be the supreme authority. Women in India were
thus franchised for four thousand years whereas they got
enfranchised in the West only in this century. They further
stipulate that the village parliament would elect village elders for
day to day work by secret ballot, usually for a year, and could
remove them any time for misconduct! Significantly, village
governments in Switzerland function on similar lines.(Video
film "Two Democracies —- Swiss and Ancient India",
produced by Nalini Singh for Doordarshan, India’s State TV
Channel)

Such
empowerment of local communities nurtured societal values, culture,
respect for the environment, and self-reliance. Through India’s
long civilisation, this tradition got dislodged in parts of India.
Hindu priesthood also abused the society by converting castes
originally based on profession, (similar
to Smiths and Carpenters of the West)
to those by birth, made one untouchable, and introduced exploitative
customs. The Muslim rule increased the taxes but mostly did not
dislodge the village governments. Till as recently as the nineteenth
century, the tradition of village self-governance was alive and
vibrant. In his famous minute record in 1830, Sir Charles Metcalfe,
the then British Governor General, wrote:

"The village communities of India are little republics, having
nearly everything they can want within themselves. They seem to last
where nothing else lasts. Dynasty after dynasty tumble down;
revolution succeeds revolution; but the village community remains
the same…. This union of village communities, each one forming a
separate state in itself, has, I conceive, contributed more than any
other cause to the preservation of the peoples of India, through all
the revolutions and changes they have suffered. It is in a high
degree conducive to their happiness, and enjoyment of a great
portion of freedom and independence. I wish, therefore, that the
village communities may never be disturbed and I dread everything
that has a tendency to break them up."

2
Foreign Rule and After
The greed of the foreign rule caused gradual disintegration of these
village governments. The deliberate introduction of state tenancy as
against the village tenure system dealt a deathblow to the corporate
life of the village republics. The concentration of all executive
and judicial powers in the hands of the British bureaucrats also
deprived the villages of their age-long power and influence".

All
through the freedom struggle, Gandhi wanted to reconnect India with
its 4000 years democratic tradition of village self-governance.
Aurobindo Ghosh, the well-known political activist turned spiritual
visionary, said, "The village is the cell of the national body
and the cell life must be healthy for the body to be developed.
Swaraj (self-rule) begins with the village".

When India attained independence, the then Indian leadership ignored
such wise advise, and retained the exploitative colonial system —-
centralised, non-transparent and bureaucratised. Centralisation of
power provoked partition of India. Most third world nations adopted
similar practices. In 50 years, these have led to all round social
environmental, economic and political degeneration in painful
reality. Such countdown for total disaster can be reversed only
through true appreciation of religion. This is the challenge of the
millennium.

Many social thinkers have been highly critical of the way
democracy has been functioning. Bernard Shaw described
electioneering expenses as vulgar and soapbox election oratory
obnoxious.

3
Basic Structure of Universal Democracy
It is now universally recognised that democracy is the only vehicle
for realising a sustainable society. Unfortunately, political
science has not properly defined democracy. Democracy can be
best defined as how the common people would like the nation to be
governed. Given the choice, the people would first retain
resources at the local level for handling all local matters such as
administration of justice, police, education, healthcare, land,
water systems and forests. They would devolve a specified share of
local resources to the state and national governments for higher
level functions and coordination, but not permit them to interfere
in local matters. They would require all representatives to function
under effective transparency mechanisms covering the sovereign
rights of the people to information, consultation, participation and
referendum. Along with certain rights regarded as fundamental to
democracy, this can clearly be said to constitute the basic
structure of universal democracy. All other forms of governance
are semi, pseudo or non-democracies.

4
Religion Enriched Egalitarian Society
An egalitarian society in which all have equal social, economic and
political rights and opportunities, has been advocated by social and
religious thinkers since ages the world over. It however never got
properly defined, much less instituted. Such a society can be
realised only through true grassroots empowerment in which
grassroots parliaments control all local resources and
decision-making. Such grassroots empowerment nurtures societal
values that look upon wealth for societal good not personal
aggrandisement, and prevents exploitation of the weak. Social and
environmental discords are resolved within the local level, that is,
district, country or municipality. State and national governments
have no jurisdiction over social matters, including religion.

Based on 4000 years democratic ethos of India,
Gandhi advocated such a system. He described democracy as a series
of concentric circles with the village at the centre.("Gandhian
Constitution for Free India" by Prof. Shriman Narayan,
published in 1946, republished on our website.
Unfortunately, it never got adopted.

5 Instituting
Egalitarian Democracy
Egalitarian democracy transcends socialism and capitalism. It is
truly "capitalism with a human face", that is, free
enterprise under community control that nurtures values. For
realising such a democracy and preventing it from being again
hijacked by vested interests, two new independent institutions are
needed. These are:

[1] Conscience Keeper of the State :

In
the bygone days the monarchin most countries had a royalpriest functioning as the conscience keeper of
the state, advising on righteous conduct. Sometime unscrupulousmonarchs ignored such advice, sometimes the
priest abused his authority.Contemporary democracy needs an independent
institution, Sovereign Rights Commissions, with authority
to direct referendums, except on issues fundamental to democracy
or the integrity of the nation. There can, for instance, be no
referendum on making the state theocratic or a region seceding.
Such commissions shall oversee that the sovereign rights of the
people to information, consultation, participation and referendum
are properly instituted and accessible to the people. They will
also, after ascertaining the wishes and aspirations of the people,
direct referendums to correct faulty institutions of governance,
laws and practices, and monitor that they are adopted. They will,
superior to the royal priest, somewhat like Gandhi, function as
the non-corruptible conscience keeper of the state based on the
values of the society as a whole.

[2] Moderating Decision-making for
Sustainability :

Based on
the recommendation of the RioConference on Environment and Development held
in 1992, upper houses presently protecting vested interest,should be replaced by Councils of
Stakeholders at the local, state and national levels to
moderate decisionmaking for sustainability by resolving social,
environmental and economic conflicts. Such councils shall consist
of apolitical representatives of various stakeholders such as
disadvantaged communities, farmers,labour, industry, religions, women, academics,
professionals and civil society organisations.Place of World
Faith A paradigm of democratic governance is needed
for evolving a religion enriched egalitarian society in the third
millennium. To facilitate this, it is proposed that an appropriate
site may be landscaped in every nation-state as "Place of
World Faiths". It should have plaques displaying the
following:

1 Basic tenets of all faiths.

2 Adoption of henotheism, that is acceptance of
various manifestations of one super-consciousness, and redefining
secularism as respect for, not mere tolerance of, all faiths

3 Repentance by Hindu priesthood for abusing
its people by converting castes originally based on profession to
those based on birth, making one untouchable, and introducing
exploitative customs, thereby dividing the society.

4 Repentance by Muslim priesthood for abusing
jehadsfor committing aggression on other cultures, fatwas
as weapons of abuse, destroying hundreds of shrines of other
religions, and perpetuating anti-women civil laws.Jehad
truly means war within oneself for self-purification. Fatwa means
dictum for the good of the society. Anti-women civil laws are
legitimising four wives, instant divorce, and denial of
inheritance.

5 Repentance by the powerful feudal lords of
Britain for, in the name of democracy, creating the faulty
Westminster system. Basic principles of management dictate that
the executive, legislature and judiciary should be distinct and
separate as checks and balance on one another. With a mixed up
executive and legislature, every legislator in this system is a
potential minister. This fosters abuse of authority, jockeying for
power, horse trading, jumbo cabinet, bribing legislators and
instability. The Watchdogs thus become wild dogs of governance.
Adopted by many nations, this system has caused immense harm to
democracy. It led to fascism in pre-war Germany, repeated
instability in post-war France, and abuse and instability in many
third world nations. To protect their feudal interests, the feudal
lords also created a House of Lords, whose variations for
protecting vested interests, exist in many nations.

6 Repentance by Christian priesthood for
committing aggression on other cultures, and abusing poverty for
religious conversions. Repentance also by the political leadership
of the West for subjugating other cultures and usurping their
resources. It enslaved almost the entire African continent,
destroyed cultures such as American Indian, and, at one time,
ruled over two-thirds of the world. For sustaining its high levels
of income and consumption, it is now sucking the resources of poor
nations through return on loans and investments and unfair trade
practices of aggressive capitalism and globalisation. It is
thereby circumventing economic recession, a painful recurring
feature of capitalism.

7 Repentance by the political leadership of
communist nations for, in the name of empowering local communes,
creating an exploitative centralised system with controlled
economy that destroyed all initiatives of the people.

8 Repentance by the political leadership of
India for rejecting Gandhi, partitioning India, imposing emergency
curtailing the rights of the people, and damaging the Golden
Temple of Sikhs. Repentance by the political leadership of
Pakistan for creating a theocratic democracy, a
self-contradiction, and abusing the people now constituting
Bangladesh. Repentance by the political leadership of both India
and Pakistan for dividing Kashmir and fighting over it as real
estate without concern for its people.

9 Repentance by most third world nations for
instituting anti-people democracies based on exploitative colonial
institutions —- centralised, non-transparent and bureaucratised,
and superimposing exploitative socialist practises of centralised
planning and a controlled economy. Such pseudo democracies have
created heavy wasteful overheads and destroyed all initiatives of
the people, fostering all round social, environmental, economic
and political degeneration. Facing bankruptcy, they are now forced
to open their economies and are drifting into pseudo capitalism
that fosters vulgar wealth alongside abject poverty.

10 Repentance by the political leadership of
China for usurping Tibet, an independent people of ethnic origin
different from the Chinese, and converting communist rule to a
fascist regime having a single party government, rightist economic
model and a powerful war machine. Repentence by the political
leadership of USA, the greatest proponent of democracy, for
supporting such neo fascism.

11 Repentance by the dictators of all
those nations such as Myamnar in which human rights are being
violated, ethnic groups subjugated and violence against the people
perpetrated. Those monarchs or dictators who have concern for the
people and, like Ram, allow local communities to govern
themselves, and serve their higher level functions, deserve
respect.

Such repentance shall be followed by forceful
positive initiatives for correction.

Vision of the
Super-Conscious A multimedia exposition "Vision of the
Super-Conscious" should be established adjacent to the Place
of World Faiths for inculcating values amongst the modern youth.
The exposition shall have four wings, namely, (1) Experiencing the
Super-Conscious through ages and in different cultures.(2) Halls
for discourses, devotional singing, and meditation, (3) A
spiritual university with dedicated research on egalitarian
democracy, and its importance for humanity and sustainability of
our only earth, and (4) Einstein and Gandhi on relationship of
science and religion.

Einstein made some remarkable discoveries in
physical sciences that led to further development in frontier
technologies such as information, space and genetics. His
discoveries thus did not represent the last truth. He is the man
of the second millennium.

Gandhi only reiterated the truth that was
discovered in the village of India 4000 years ago, bur forgotten
or ignored. It represents the absolute truth. Gandhi is truly the
apostle of the third millennium.